MBB Data Points: February 2, 2015

Quality Wins Bunched At The Top: Of the top nine wins so far this season, Duke has three and Kentucky and Virginia have two apiece. Miami (at Duke) and Richmond (at VCU) are the other two that snuck in there. Quality wins of such an extreme nature put all three schools in a great position for a No. 1 seed (or a No. 2 seed if any of them pick up a few losses).

Last Four In: 23 of 32 conference leaders are currently outside the KPI Top 45 (the current cut line to make the NCAA Tournament). Of those 23, only 3 (Wyoming, Tulsa, Louisiana Tech) would come from a multi-bid league should they win the conference tournament. What this means is that there is already condensing happening at the 12-seed line. If this continues, look for the last four at-large teams to play into a No. 11 seed this year.

Non D-I Games Have to Count, right?: Tulsa’s loss to Southeast Oklahoma State early in the season is the largest outlier of the season to date. Tulsa is No. 75 in KPI, but No. 43 in the RPI because that bad home loss simply doesn’t count. Non D-I teams are combined together in KPI, meaning that “team” is No. 347 in KPI.

The Fault in RPI: The fault lies in how Kansas is ahead of Kentucky in the current RPI. 50% of that formula is opponent’s winning percentage, a huge amount (twice as much as the 25% for your team’s winning percentage, and the 25% for your opponent’s opponent’s winning percentage).

Strength of Schedule: For the second straight year, Kansas will likely finish with the top strength of schedule in the country. They currently have the No. 1 SOS with a No. 11 Remaining SOS and a No. 1 Future SOS. Their non-conference SOS is No. 4.